Pronunciation of "Chitin"

Forsythe on 1/7/2002 at 21:21

*laugh* I suspect you exect me to come out in the negative, but I already considered this angle in my above reply ;) Balmora, Shangri-La, Camelot, love, and the Bogey Man are all words that represent places, concepts, and objects and are known to a large number of humans. The object of a word may as easily be 'real' as fictional, it need only represent something at least vaguely understood by a decent portion of language-enabled entities.

Granted, the idea of a 'real word' can be subjective... a coal miner may hear the word 'epiglottis' and think it's either a coughing sneeze or an infection, and to stretch the concept a trifle a bark from a dog may mean 'stay away' or 'mine' but be interpreted as 'I'm gonna bite you'... but overall, a significant number could accurately translate the words (a doctor and another dog, respectively) in question into the intended concept.

Exodus_dk on 2/7/2002 at 07:02

The old philosophers would turn in their graves if they heard you making what's real a matter of democracy! :tsktsk:

However - what you are proposing is that an unreal word might turn into a real word during time... Like when the 1st mill. people have played Morrowind THEN it could be a real word...

Sorry - but I crave a more consistent definition of the concept "a real word". :cheeky:

Forsythe on 2/7/2002 at 17:47

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The old philosophers would turn in their graves if they heard you making what's real a matter of democracy! :tsktsk:

Not democracy so much as usage; language is there to serve as a flexible means of communication, not shackle us to a specific mode of conversation. After all, why else are new words being invented to cover previously-unconsidered possibilities (cybering [obvious], 'beaming' [palm pilots], and 'fax' [facsimile, shortened]) while at the same time old words that have become over-difficult have dropped by the wayside (I mourn their loss, but the vast majority are ignorant of their mere existence)

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Sorry - but I crave a more consistent definition of the concept "a real word". :cheeky:

Good luck ;)

Exodus_dk on 3/7/2002 at 08:45

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Originally posted by Forsythe

Not democracy so much as usage; language is there to serve as a flexible means of communication, not shackle us to a specific mode of conversation. After all, why else are new words being invented to cover previously-unconsidered possibilities (cybering [obvious], 'beaming' [palm pilots], and 'fax' [facsimile, shortened]) while at the same time old words that have become over-difficult have dropped by the wayside (I mourn their loss, but the vast majority are ignorant of their mere existence)

In other words - you totally agree with me... Because you do *not* consider these old and unused words to be "not real words" :cheeky:

I won! :p

Forsythe on 3/7/2002 at 18:42

*laugh* Oh, was that your original argument? Odd, I thought you were arguing that "alkandragrinfelldergrad" should be considered a real word ;)

Exodus_dk on 5/7/2002 at 10:38

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Originally posted by Forsythe
*laugh* Oh, was that your original argument? Odd, I thought you were arguing that "alkandragrinfelldergrad" should be considered a real word ;)

I think you misread my post... I've put in some *'s where I think you went wrong :cool:

Forsythe on 5/7/2002 at 20:10

(Hmm.... you've only one post in this thread that's been edited recently and that has asterisks, so I have to assume you mean the one I quote below....)

Point of fact, you 1st introduced the point that old words are still "real words" here:

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In other words - you totally agree with me... Because you do *not* consider these old and unused words to be "not real words"

within the same post that you proclaim that you won... which seems a bit of a specious argument ;)

Secondly, I think there's some real miscommunication going on here; I made a point of saying that old words have dropped by the wayside, meaning that noone recognises them as "real words" any longer. Words that noone remembers and that are not written down somewhere no longer have symbolic meaning to anyone (I suppose if one believes in an afterlife then it's not entirely true, but that's a whole other line of debate). As such, without a symbolic anchor to give them meaning, they're not "real words" IMHO, thus displaying yet more of their subjective nature.

3rdly, I really wasn't aware that there was a possible 'win' in a debate about such an elusive and ephemeral topic; I'm just BS'ing to make the work day go by faster ;)

Exodus_dk on 8/7/2002 at 07:24

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Originally posted by Forsythe
(Hmm.... you've only one post in this thread that's been edited recently and that has asterisks, so I have to assume you mean the one I quote below....)

I don't call *'s asterisks... usually :) I don't know what they look like on your desktop though.

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Secondly, I think there's some real miscommunication going on here; I made a point of saying that old words have dropped by the wayside, meaning that noone recognises them as "real words" any longer. Words that noone remembers and that are not written down somewhere no longer have symbolic meaning to anyone (I suppose if one believes in an afterlife then it's not entirely true, but that's a whole other line of debate). As such, without a symbolic anchor to give them meaning, they're not "real words" IMHO, thus displaying yet more of their subjective nature.

Well, your misunderstanding of my words is caused by my misunderstanding of your's...
I thought you were arguing that the old words were real words even though hardly used anymore... Anyhow - if that was your opinion then I would still disagree :cheeky:

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3rdly, I really wasn't aware that there was a possible 'win' in a debate about such an elusive and ephemeral topic; I'm just BS'ing to make the work day go by faster ;)

You're BS'ing me???? :confused: It could not be... I don't believe it! :wot:
Come on - be serious! :)
You're at work? Writing on a forum - hmmm :grr:
Shouldn't you be working? Don't you feel that you're *STEALING* from your employer? :angel:
Ohh, gotta run - my measurements are almost done... can't wait 'till I get off!!! :cool:

Forsythe on 8/7/2002 at 20:06

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Originally posted by Exodus_dk

I don't call *'s asterisks... usually :) I don't know what they look like on your desktop though.

Ahhh, interesting.... (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=asterisk) ;)

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*ponder* I see... so you would say that words from the spoken languages that early man developed, that we no longer know what they sounded like, still qualify as real words?

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Well lessee... as I'm a fully qualified coder, and the most taxing tasks I've been given as of late is to troubleshoot some HTML, yes, I think it's safe to say I'm freaking bored out of my mind :p

Tuco on 9/7/2002 at 02:31

Wtf... People are fighting and I'm not involved???

You two, Exodus and Forsythe, I'm not going to read any of your posts, but I disagree with whatever you said. I think it's uhh, due to lack of any amiable size of a penis... and not having a girlfriend and/or wife...

No doubt my life is much superior to yours, and you're all newbies.

Furthoremore, whatever points you made in those posts I refuse to read are just desperate attempts to prove your adolescent impotency.

So there...

I bet you're just shitting your pants thinking of how great and mighty and right I am.